McGuffey Lane

McGuffey Lane was a 1980s country-rock band that seemed destined for stardom, but were derailed by changing audience tastes and bad luck. The band was founded by guitarist Terry Efaw and bass guitarist Steve Reis, who were working together as a duo called Scotch and Soda. They added lead vocalist/acoustic guitarist Bobby Gene McNelly and changed their name to McGuffey Lane after a road Reis lived on in Athens, Ohio. The trio later became a sextet after the addition of keyboard player Tebes Douglass, drummer Dick Smith and guitarist John Schwab, who had been opening their shows. McGuffey Lane began playing regular gigs in a Columbus club, and developed a large, devoted following in Ohio; they tried to get a record deal, and even cut an album on their own Paradise Island Label which sold 40,000 copies, but Nashville wasn't interested until the similarly-styled Alabama became popular. McGuffey Lane eventually signed to Atco, a major pop label. In 1980, they re-released their previous album and toured with Southern rock acts like Charlie Daniels and the Allman Brothers. The group had their first hit on the pop charts with "Long Time Lovin' You." Their second album, Aqua Dream, was released at the end of 1980 and produced a minor pop hit with "Start It All Over." Their first country hit, "Making a Living's Been Killing Me," reached the Top 50. The band scored a minor country hit in 1983 and then released their third album, Let the Hard Times Roll. They later moved to Atlantic because they wanted to be promoted to a country market instead of a pop audience. The band was putting the finishing torches on Day by Day when Douglass was killed in a car wreck; the album was dedicated to his memory and produced the mid-range hits "Day by Day" and "The First Time." At the end of the...